The Marriages Made in Cyberspace

THE NATIONAL - July 31 - Online matchmaking companies in India are becoming evermore popular as the population becomes increasingly engaged with the internet. In 1996, Anupam Mittal went from house to house, trying to arrange a match. Every visit that resulted in a wedding earned him a tidy commission.The marriage broker got Mr Mittal thinking: how many houses is it possible for a broker to visit each day? Was the choice of potential spouses restricted only to his limited pool of clients? That is how shaadi.com was born, some 15 years ago. The web portal - which currently has 20M users and is responsible ~ 2 million weddings so far - was last year listed among the top 20 digital brands in the country by Brand Equity and the Nielsen company. The communications company MSL Group Asia says ~10% of India's internet users have at some point accessed a matrimonial site. Two market leaders - Mr Mittal's shaadi.com and bharatmatrimony.com, founded in 1997 by Murugavel Janakiraman - together control 70% of the online matrimony market between them, according to JuxtConsult.

by Anuj Chopra
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